What Awaits the Sin of Greed
by Syris Noir
Summary: Harry gets a macabre view of what his life would have been like had he befriended Malfoy back in first year.
1. Default Chapter

At some point in a person's life, they must experience a choice. Whether it be as simple as folding laundry, or as complicated as what classes to take next year (don't lie, it _is_ complicated) we all have to realize our choice, and make a decision. The Choice I speak of is more complicated. It will sometimes be the turning point, which will take us down one pathway in our life, and forever abolish one that could have been. Though we may torment ourselves wondering what would have happened, we will never know.

But, what if someone did?

Our hero today is young Harry James Potter, whose exploits of his first year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are now famous. He dodged "Fluffy" Hagrid's three headed guardian, advanced through the four famed challenges, and fought Quirell for control of the Stone, and triumphed, saving the world from certain doom provided by Lord Voldemort.

What is not as well remembered is Harry's second encounter with young Draco Malfoy on the Hogwarts Express. He was offered a hand, which supposedly would help him separate the "good sort" from the "wrong sort". Harry naturally refused, permanently ensuring his path, his Choice made.

Yet, what if _this_ happened?...

"…You don't want to go making families with the wrong sort. I can help you there." He held out his hand to shake Harry's. Harry looked around for a moment. He saw Draco, tall and confident, with his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, cracking their knuckles and grinning malevolently. He then looked at Ron Weasley, whom he had barley known for half an hour. His nose, hair, and robes were filthy and dilapidated. Harry didn't know what kind of people he would be meeting at Hogwarts, but if they were anything like Crabbe and Goyle, he would need some serious protection. Ron couldn't offer him that.

"Sure, why not?" Harry took Malfoy's hand, and was pulled out of the compartment. They took him down a dark corridor of the train. He never looked back. He still hasn't.

May Heaven help us when the roads collide……….


	2. Erised's Intervention

**Ruins of Hogsmeade**

He walked around, tall and confident. He was proud of his handiwork. He had finally done it. There was no need to claim the school itself. He was ensuring its inward destruction. He came upon the Shrieking Shack, or now more accurately, the Silent Pile of Wood and Tin. He pointed his wand at the ground and decided now would be a time to mark his territory.

_"TREMOR SANGUIS!" _

Normally what happened was the ground shook and his insignia flew up in the sky, a snake caressing a bolt of lightning. Yet what happened was he was thrown seven feet from the ground, landing flat on his back.

"Mother &!" He was not a happy dictator. He wiped the dust off his regal emerald robes. He then had to shield his eyes from the golden light emanating from the hill he tried to conquer.

It was the Mirror of Erised.

What did this have to do with anything, he thought to himself. He traced his pale claws over the mirror's inscription. His hand felt an odd tingling sensation as the mirror showed not his desire, but a cryptic message.

_You've tried to take an unwelcome gift_

_Now the powers here must shift_

_Worlds connected, once apart_

_Lion or Serpent must devour heart_

_Seven weeks time you've got to take_

_To destroy the other in your wake_

_Two become One, see your voice_

_Your path entwined with the Other Choice_

He looked at this message, which disappeared momentarily. Putting two and two together, it really wasn't that complicated. This was Dumbledore's last resort. To protect Hogsmeade, he was going to put him through some arduous task which would most likely result in someone's death. Then again, logic was never my strong point, he thought to himself.

The Mirror changed images after being blank. It was Dumbledore's office as he remembered it in second year. But this was impossible. Dumbledore had been committed, he and Voldemort made sure of-

Before the thought was finished, he was gone.


	3. Jealousy, Kisses, and Comas

"Potter! Weasley! Will you please focus?"

Harry and Ron were playing one of their new favorite games: Doodle in Hermione's Arithmacy book. They had taken it from her while she was spreading SPEW to the new first years, hoping to get some recruits. Oddly enough, some listened, but as they were first years, they were broke and couldn't pay the membership fee. Second year Zabini Blaise was being even more of a jerk than ever to her, making inappropriate sounds during her speech. What could you expect? He was, after all, a Slytherin. Harry and Ron faced the front.

"Now, as you are going onto sixth year, human transfiguration will become rapidly important in your studies. Many spells, jinxes, and curses tend to go awry whenever possible and will need immediate remedy. However, in order to reverse it, you must understand how it is caused. Now, Professor Snape has been kind enough to volunteer as a test subject, knowing that no harm shall befall him in my care."

McGonagall was only half right about this statement. Snape, if at all possible, looked even more livid than ever before, with a mixed look of fear and utter resentment, partially because of the fact that he was temporarily going to be a bird. Harry and Ron were desperately trying to suppress their laughter. Hermione was up front, giving them a stern look that uncannily mirrored McGonagall's. She cleared her throat.

"The wand movement should be an upward raise of the hand, while still locked onto the target. The incantation is as such: _Homo avifora_!"

As soon as she said this, Snape glowed, and glowered, for a moment before changing into a hideously underfed vulture. The class, which was all Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, were torn by their emotions. Half of them wanted to laugh, and the others half wanted to throw this ugly creature out a window. They just decided to laugh and applaud instead. The Snape vulture couldn't take the humiliation. It flew out a window.

"Oh dear!" McGonagall cried. Human transfiguration spells didn't last long, and the last thing she needed was an injured professor on her conscience. "Excuse me class, while I try to get your professor back. Miss Granger, Mr. Goldstein, can you watch the class for me?" She stormed out, leaving the two prefects in charge. Harry and Ron imagined some time to sit down and just relax, but Hermione and Anthony turned it into a study period. Harry and Ron used the time to further desecrate Hermione's book. That is, until Hermione figured out what was going on.

"Do you realize how much this cost me? And look here, this rune looks like a disfigured-"

"Hermione, lighten up." Ron said. "Besides, isn't there some sort of cleansing spell that you can find to make it all disappear? You did get the most OWLS I our class as I recall." Hermione sat down beside him and chuckled. "Only because I had you nearby for comparison." Ron leaned in. "Is that supposed to be an insult or a complement?"

"Oh, I think you know."

And they leaned in for what had been their wettest, sloppiest kiss this semester, and term only started last week. It's not that Harry had a crush on Hermione or anything; it's just, he was a little jealous.

Okay, he was _really _jealous. Ever since Ron asked her out during the summer, they did nothing but publicly display affection. She even found a spell that made pink sparks that spelled out R+H ETERNALY (they both thought 4EVER was kind of cheesy). Every time Harry saw it he wanted to gag. He was happy for them deep, deep, _deep_ down, but with all the attention You-Know-Who's resurrection brought, people wouldn't give him a moment's peace, even more so than before. All the sudden, his bubble of depression was popped by Hermione's scream.

Everyone turned to see Hermione standing over Ron's body. His eyes were wide open and full of fear. Hermione didn't what to do, so she interpreted it by crying into Harry's arms. Anthony Goldstein, the Ravenclaw prefect stepped forward. His mother was a Muggle nurse, so he went forward.

"He seems to have a beat, but it's only once every twenty seconds. Hermione, what happened?" Hermione recovered from her crying and tried to answer, but nothing came out, which took her by shock. Her lips kept moving, but there was no sound. Anthony moved on to Harry, who explained that he had just dropped on mid kiss. They carried him up to the hospital wing, hoping, praying Madam Pomfrey had an easy, cure-all solution.

"If only there was a simple cure-all solution." Pomfrey sighed. Harry looked aghast. "You mean there's nothing you can do?" Pomfrey shot him a stern look. Harry had gotten a lot of those lately. "He seems to be in a deep state of a catatonia, sort of like a coma. The thing is his hand seems to be making odd movements. No coma allows that." It was true. His hand seemed to be in a sort of swirling movement, too specific to be a twitch. Every other part of his body was completely motionless and stiff. She promised Harry that se would try every kind of relevant potion possible, and would contact him as soon as possible. Hermione's speech impediment became an issue also, as a simple counter jinx tends to reverse a Silencing Charm, but she was still speechless, literally and metaphorically. Harry had to leave the Hospital Wing, sans two of his best friends. What was going on? No kiss had that power.


	4. Pieces of Two Puzzles

**Dumbledore's Office- Our World, 1996**

Recovering from his fall, he looked around. This was Dumbledore's office, as he remembered it in second year. Still full of strange objects and a perch were the phoenix would have been. He sighed relief. The phoenix wasn't there, and if it was, he would have surely been found and caught. He dusted himself off. He saw a copy of the _Prophet_, which at first made him think he was hallucinating. The _Prophet _had been dismantled and rebuilt as his privately owned company, made to print the "truths" of the Wizarding worlds, instead of those outrageous stories that he was overstepping his boundaries. The man who wrote that article disappeared rather mysteriously three weeks later.

He scanned the date: _September 9, 1996_. The date was still the same the last time he checked. However, these headlines seemed preposterous. _Lucius Malfoy pleads insanity, Dementors seen near the Americas, Boy Who Lived greets New Minister- _WHAT? He almost screeched at this outrage. That name had been outlawed and erased from historical archives. Anyone who called him that would be sentenced to life in Azkaban without trail. Not that there was a Wizengamot anymore. He read further:

"Our new Minister was surprised to find young Harry Potter

catching up with her for a surprise visit.

Representatives claimed that business was "casual, though there was

lengthy discussion regarding new Auror recruits, and what was to

be done about the rising threat of You-Know-Who and his followers,

publicly made know to us three months previously by disgraced

Ex-Minister Cornelius Fudge.

Harry James Potter is starting his sixth year at Hogwarts and is currently in Gryffindor House and Top Seeker for his Quidditch team."

He sat down for a moment, trying to figure out all this new information. A new Minister? Voldemort a threat? HARRY POTTER, A GRYFFINDOR? It then hit him. His other Choice, of course! Remembering the riddle, prophecy thing, he tried to put the pieces together:

_You've tried to take an unwelcome gift_

_Now the powers here must shift_

_Worlds connected, once apart_

_Lion or Serpent must devour heart_

_Seven weeks time you've got to take_

_To destroy the other in your wake_

_Two become One, see your voice_

_Your path entwined with the Other Choice_

So it all made sense. The other Harry had to die in order for him to live. Only seven weeks time? He needed four to construct a perfect plan, and the other three to recruit henchmen to do the work for him. He would need to find his "Master" again, but this would be difficult. His identity was out in the open in this world, and everyone in it was after him. Besides, where would he find one half of himself?

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard footsteps coming up to the office. He quickly swirled, the only way to activate his cloak, which only turned invisible at his will.

The door swung open. He took a gasp. Who else to enter but the former mirror image of himself. Harry James Potter. Defenseless. Unsuspecting. Perfect.


	5. A Cursed Tome of Forked Tounge

Disclaimer: Much as I love these characters, they aren't mine. So all you lawyers out there drop your suitcases. Try to sue me and I will curse you. No, seriously. I _will_ curse you.

**Library, Ten (or so) Minutes earlier**

Harry was not at the library for homework, which McGonagall had assigned despite the day's events. He figured there had to be some sort of cure for what Ron and Hermione had, and figured looking for a cure for Hermione's ailment would be simpler. He had searched all sorts of Charms and Counter-Jinx encyclopedias (Volumes one through two hundred and eleventeen, which Harry wasn't sure was a number until now) and hadn't found anything vaguely related to "permanent Silencing charms", or even _a _Silencing Charm for that matter. Harry at first was wondering why he was even attempting this, but then he remembered it was the kind of thing Ron and Hermione would have done. Well, more Hermione, but Ron would have helped.

As he scanned the shelves again (he couldn't touch any books he wasn't going to read; according to Madam Pince his "greasy mitts" would ruin the binding) he couldn't find any books worth looking at. All of them were either devised so only someone like Dumbledore could make out a single sentence, or so redundant that each unnecessary point was restated five times. Harry felt like slamming his head against each and every one of these useless tomes, until he saw that small glimmering emerald book that seemed to appear from nowhere.

The book was entitled (or so Harry thought) _Malleus Empirum_. The writing was unlike anything Harry had ever seen. It scrawled from one form to another, so it never read the same way twice. When it did materialize however, it was in a stranger form. The writing looked Aramaic, but it didn't even seem based in Latin. It then dawned on Harry that this was Parseltounge. Written Parseltounge. What was even more disturbing is what the text read.



Translation provided below:

_Bylaws Section Seven:_

_Purification of Wizardry._

_Muggles, commonly called Non-Magical Folk, are no hope to continuing magical supremacy. They must be eliminated on contact, and then sacrificed to the _Shiisarhaum _(leader), in hopes that they are reborn as a wizard. There is little hope for a Halfling, they are given n ultimatum: join or die. Should they join, they are presented before the _Shiisarhaum _and must publicly renounce their parentage. In doing so, their muggle parent shall be stricken from record and they are employed under strict conditions. Of course, they must have their memory modified, as not to tell others of their once parentage, and to pass on details to their descendants. As for Mudbloods, special circumstances must occur…_

Harry couldn't continue. The pages afterward described demonic rituals, sacrifices, and very detailed instructions of gruesome murder. Why on earth would Hogwarts have a book like this? There was clear cataloguing on it, and it looked as it had been here for a few years. Ron's semi-paralysis, Hermione's sudden silence, this book, they were all connected somehow. This was more than a coincidence. He had to talk to Dumbledore about this.

It was the oddest thing he felt when he went up to Dumbledore's office. Almost as if he was being watched…


End file.
